Of a dying musician and a dying industry

Just some short riffs this week:

Fran Fried

Published
12:00 am EDT, Friday, September 12, 2003

 I dont know what I could add about Warren Zevon that wouldnt sound overly mushy about a guy who had so much fun with death when he wasnt dying. But for the 11 ½ years I did overnight radio, I kept his "Ill Sleep When Im Dead" in my heart as an unofficial theme  though I never played it for fear of jinxing myself

 Heres what happened with Ol Dirty No-Show at Toads last Friday, from the clubs booking guru, Jeff Petrin: ODBs manager didnt call the club until 10:30 that night to say his star wasnt coming. The reason given was that ODBs parole officer wouldnt let him cross state lines

 News flash  Recording industry sues 12-year-old New York girl for downloading music, makes her and her mother pay $2,000: Talk about pennywise, pound-foolish; or winning the battle, losing the war. And in the background, I hear a sound bite of that panelist asking Joe McCarthy, "At long last, sir, have you no shame?" The answer: Of course not. Such are the desperate measures of a desperate business.

The notion of the recording industry siccing its big dog, the RIAA, on a shy seventh-grade honor student in a housing project  who believed she was legal when she subscribed to Kazaa to download mostly TV themes and nursery songs  really astounds me in an era when astounding behavior is common. Of course, this is just the evil villain the industry wants to go after, right?

Of course, theres a problem with downloading en masse. Technically, it is copyright infringement (though I dont recall the industry going after people when it was cassettes and I was a high school kid taping hundreds of songs off the radio, leading to a lifelong passion and a career). And some of the downloaders are shameless (and clueless) about what theyre doing.

But talk about calling the kettle black. Were talking about an industry that has been caught before gouging the public. (And how else could Universal afford to slash its ludicrous CD prices by a third, as it did last week?) Were talking about an industry with a decades-long tradition of screwing its artists  from shorting old-time R&B singers of profits, royalties and pensions; to signing young, impressionable (and not very smart) contemporary musicians to contracts so ludicrous they wont even see a profit unless they sell a million copies  and how many will ever sell anywhere near that many? And now that their nefarious way of life is threatened, the industry is screaming and crying foul and acting all righteous.

And in all this dialogue of industry vs. downloaders, I havent heard one person yet address the people who are really being hurt: The musicians themselves.

And the industry is going after a 12-year-old for $2,000? Perhaps someone (where the hell are you, Congress?) should launch an investigation into the industrys decades of bad behavior. Be assured that if Congress launches one, there sure wont be a shortage of witnesses. It could make for fun TV.

By the way, RIAA, which musicians are the beneficiaries of that $2,000 you took from that girl? Thought so

 Thirty years? You bet your Beppe  in this case, nimble-fingered, bilingual guitarist/ singer Beppe Gambetta, the pride of Genoa, Italia. Hell be the seasons first headliner Saturday night as the Branford Folk Music Society launches its 30th year of concerts by performers near and (in this case) far.

One big change: After 29 years at Trinity Episcopal Church on the Branford Green, the society has moved to the church next door, the First Congregational Church of Branford (1009 Main St.), which is wheelchair-accessible and has more room. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15; call (203) 488-7715

 Bridgeports Beardsley Zoo (1875 Noble Ave., off Route 1, Exit 5 off routes 8-25; 203-394-6565, www.beardsleyzoo.org) doesnt close for the cold months, but it does bring its Zoofolk concert series to an end each September. And this years final headliner will be Patty Larkin, who released her 10th album, "Red=Luck," over the winter. The Kennedys and Christina Abbott will open at 6:45. Tickets are $17.50, $12 for seniors and children ages 3-11

 This mating call sounds like an odd hybrid of lounge music and Supertramp. Mates of State are spouses Jason Hammel and Trumbull native Kori Gardner, who met at the University of Kansas, moved to San Francisco and have now traded in the Bay for near the Sound, in East Haven. Their new album, "Team Boo," comes out Tuesday; you can get a preview Sunday night when they play at Bar (254 Crown St.; 9 p.m.; free; 203-495-8924)

 Local punk fixture Marvin White  who played with Brokens Jim Martin and The Swaggerts Bill Collins in 7The Baltimore Foot Stompers in the late 90s and is now a cop in his hometown of Prospect  was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident early last month, and hes still laid up at Yale-New Haven.

Anyway, to raise some funds for Marvin (a father of two), his friends are holding a ziti dinner from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Prospect Volunteer Firehouse on Route 69. Tickets are $10; call (203) 758-6609

 Goings-on in Clear Channel Land (available at the Oakdale box office, 203-265-1501): On sale Saturday will be 3 Doors Down, Seether and Shinedown at the Meadows for an indoor show Oct. 23 (pit $29.50, seats $27.50), and an oldies show Nov. 8 at Oakdale with Tommy James, The Buckinghams, The Grass Roots and The Turtles ($38 and $28)

 Because of the death of her bassist, Terone "T-Bone" Hannon, of a stroke last Thursday (at 39), Jewel has canceled her tour, including Oct. 2 at Oakdale and Oct. 5 at Foxwoods. Also canceled: the two Oct. 5 performances of "Lord of the Dance" at Oakdale

Fran Fried, the Registers entertainment editor, can be reached at 40 Sargent Drive, New Haven 06511, (203) 789-5678, fax (203) 865-7894 or ffried@nhregister.com. (Only fax or mail press releases or club dates.) Hes also the host of "Franorama" from 6 to 10 a.m. the first, third and fifth Fridays of the month on WPKN (89.5 FM).